Pocket Ninja:It took a hell of a lot longer than I would have expect for the article's comments section to go completely off the rails.

Lemme guess: "My pap would take me out to the woodshed blah blah blah I grew up right!" "That sick biatch should be beaten to death with a baseball bat to see how she likes it" "F*ck you you libral pussies/conservative nazis blah blah blah" etc etc

gopher321:Pocket Ninja: It took a hell of a lot longer than I would have expect for the article's comments section to go completely off the rails.

Lemme guess: "My pap would take me out to the woodshed blah blah blah I grew up right!" "That sick biatch should be beaten to death with a baseball bat to see how she likes it" "F*ck you you libral pussies/conservative nazis blah blah blah" etc etc

/dnrtfa

Well, one commenter queried as to whether CPS should do random checks on homeschooled children.

Bathia_Mapes:gopher321: Pocket Ninja: It took a hell of a lot longer than I would have expect for the article's comments section to go completely off the rails.

Lemme guess: "My pap would take me out to the woodshed blah blah blah I grew up right!" "That sick biatch should be beaten to death with a baseball bat to see how she likes it" "F*ck you you libral pussies/conservative nazis blah blah blah" etc etc

/dnrtfa

Well, one commenter queried as to whether CPS should do random checks on homeschooled children.

Eh, my younger son has a friend that lives a few doors down from us, and that kid has been kicked out of school every year for probably the last 3 or 4 years - he's maybe 13 or so. His mom gave up this year and is "homeschooling" him.

Kid does nothing all day. I say this because mom works all day, and I see the kid out riding his bike from morning till night. I suspect his education is... lacking. Plus he's dumb as a length of iron pipe. I see jail in his future.

Fortunately, as is often the case, their own stupidity was their downfall.

This morning I was changing my son out of his pajamas. He raises his arms and I pulled his shirt off. The neckline of the shirt pulled on his ears when I was taking it off and it hurt him. He said "you hurt me", and I felt farking awful about it. He's fine, but just the thought that something I did hurt him is not something I feel good about.

Private_Citizen:Shostie: At one point, she informs the crying child that she is going to put the video on Facebook, and that viewers are free to call Child Protective Services if they wish.

This is one of those ideas that probably seemed better in her head.

I do wonder what she was thinking. In what scenario did she think that video was going to help?

/helped the kid - he's away from her now!

Well it seems from what the article said about what they were saying to the kid while they were whooping him that the kid was making gang related post. She probably thought that beating him and posting it for everybody to see would deter him from doing it in the future.

Warlordtrooper:What is the legal definition of "reasonable" You cannot define something that is different for every single person on earth.

"reasonable" in the law means "objectively reasonable to and outside observer, which, as a defendant you are free to have defined for you by your choice of a judge or jury.

The real horrorshow here is not how dumb the mom was by posting the video, but that but for that video that kids would still be living in a hellish existence where such beatings were common.

To some extent I blame Tyler Perry for this, making child abuse funny/acceptable is a large part of his Madea schtick, and he gets women ike this to be PROUD of how badly they beat thier children not ashamed...

Fortunately, as is often the case, their own stupidity was their downfall.

This morning I was changing my son out of his pajamas. He raises his arms and I pulled his shirt off. The neckline of the shirt pulled on his ears when I was taking it off and it hurt him. He said "you hurt me", and I felt farking awful about it. He's fine, but just the thought that something I did hurt him is not something I feel good about.

Shostie:At one point, she informs the crying child that she is going to put the video on Facebook, and that viewers are free to call Child Protective Services if they wish.

This is one of those ideas that probably seemed better in her head.

She probably saw all the other "public shaming" videos (including the dad who shot his daughter's computer) and thought "I'm in good company. They didn't get into any trouble with CPS, so I won't either."

The father of my best friend in 4th and 5th grade would whip him with a belt -- buckle end, It terrified those of us who heard him talk about it, but it didn't seem all that odd. I'm sure we thought that all fathers were basically like that and we could avoid a whipping like that if we were real, real careful.

Warlordtrooper:just to play devils advocate here, isn't using a belt a rather normal form of punishment, at least it was when my mom was a kid.

Absolutely not.

It's going to vary depending on who you ask, but I think it's pretty widely accepted that hitting a kid with something is too much. The rule I use with my kids is - at most, one smack on the ass with an open hand. That's it. Not multiple blows, no back/leg/head shots, and certainly no weapons. Sticks, belts, hairbrushes, wooden spoons...my mom used to discipline us with multiple blows from whatever weapon came to hand. I've always felt that was wrong, and resolved to do better for my kids.

Your own offspring will piss you off like few other people are capable of doing, and madness sets in with surprising ease, so you have to be super, super careful with corporal punishment.

Republican creationist Baptist checking in here. I have rarely on a few occasions used a belt very lightly spank my children - but only after a serious and intentional issue. Most of the time, on those rare times I spank, I would use the palm of my hand. I have maybe used a belt a dozen times in 18 years of parenthood with three kids.

Not to say folks shouldn't use a belt or switch, but I think you're better off saving that for those serious infractions.

As with any other punishment, you do not punish out of anger, you do not punish emotionally, and you never leave a mark. The point is not to damage the child, the point is to get the child's attention in a big way.

This was not a normal parental punishment that got out of hand. This was some sick group thing - like a class punishment project. You're not hitting the kid because you're bigger than he is. You're spanking him because you don't want him to grow up to be a savage.